@ jeannie...that's Oipe, my dancing Queen...despite her size she's very nimble and does a little dance for her bowl of dinner. She's a Norwegian Forest cat. In the winter she grows another coat on top of her shorter curly woolly one...not FUR but a long straight coat of waterproof wool! Here sh'e in between seasons so no "Puss in Boots" UGG BOOTS and no gaucho pants! Can you imagine that!? After one litter she decided she wasn't doing that anymore...and I was sort of glad too....with all that wool around her nether regions! She gets shaved mid Spring, looks very funny but its more comfortable for her. Her favourite red mate 'Yodle' is smaller. Oipe is classed as 'red' ( ginger) even though her coat colour is much closer to a pale apricot. Have a friend who collects all Oipe's wool from her periodical groomings and her annual shear, spins it, crochets baby clothes and sells them...much in demand, better than Alpaca and as rare as....cat wool! I think Oipe weighs a bit more than 22lbs. Everyone is taken by her and she's such a " lol-about and couldn't give a darn" that she allows all the attention and loves it. My lifestyle is every bit as fantastic as it is just plain hard Aussie 'yakka'. I planned that this house would be where I lived and died. All sounds so romantic and close to Nature...and it is...but one can get really muscle sore, and brain weary working oneself into this lifestyle. Thankfully I am quite a strong Aussie country woman now..but getting here from being a thin city lizzy with not much strength, let alone country naus, was an ordeal I thought I would not survive. I've needed every bit of brain and braun I could accrue... and all on my own. I've met some wonderful country folk who have taught me bush skills I never knew existed. Did you know, for example, that we should never kill ants? Black ants are the natural enemies of the white ants or termites. You need to know where your black ants live and keep them fed so they'll stay outside and hunt the termites. If you find termites just surround them with a handfull of sugar and bring a clump of dirt and black ants to where they are...you won't need to spray...ever! Once they know they'll alert all their relatives near and far and anything wooden in your dream home will be safe. Glad you all like my story..THANKS...it makes all the hardship all that much more worth it! Oipe reaps the full benefit of my, at times, sore, tired body. When I'm flaked out on the lounge from hauling in the heavy ironbark firewood for the night...she just ambles up and plonks her voluminous self right in my lap and up my chest and decides I need grooming and exfoliating with her raspy tongue. Then I get a massage! She purrs and vibrates like an idling diesel engine...its kinda relaxing! P.S. Never thought anyone would catch me wearing Jeans! The only place I wear a skirt is to church..and sometimes I'm too tired to be botheredironing it...so have a pair of Sunday jeans ...there's no such thing as a day of rest...but time for the gentler jobs...like cooking enough to last the week! All the girls get together for that...NICE. I think I'm one of the lucky people!

If you are at all fussy about what you eat, you must cook. It's as simple as that. But if your kitchen isn't well designed, and far too many aren't, cooking becomes more difficult or dangerous. I see a lot of stories on sites like Houzz about kitchen design that are all over how a kitchen looks, but not so hot on how they work. A kitchen isn't a room, it's a tool. Yes, the individual components should work, but they should work together, too. Cupboards should be structured so that you never have to kneel to get something, you never have to push jars aside to get the one you want, and you never have to lift heavy things from above your head. You should never bang your head on a cupboard door handle reaching to the back of the bench, either. And of course they should make it easy, almost inevitable, to put your floury or greasy hand on exactly what you need within two seconds - the time it takes a sauce to curdle - of you deciding that you need it. Designers pay lip service to ergonomics, but as a rule haven't a clue what it means. A kitchen sink, for instance, should be sited so that the person who does most of the washing up, even if that is only rinsing stuff on its way to the dishwasher, doesn't have to stoop (bad for the back) or reach (carrying your arms ahead of your body is tiring) to use it. Surfaces. Every kitchen where anybody at all is ever likely to make pastry NEEDS a stone slab. It stops the butter layers from melting into the paste layers because it's cool. This, people, is why granite benches are a thing. You just can't do the same job on wood. Or stainless steel, for that matter. The stone slab needn't be any bigger than 600mm square, but it really should be there. Speaking of wood, any kitchen surface you can't put a cake fresh out of the oven or a pan straight off the hotplate on is a bit useless. It looks nice? Sweet. You've got frilly curtains in your machine shop, right? My core expertise is in garden design rather than kitchen design, but I've been cooking in good and bad kitchens for fifty years, and in any case, bad design is bad design, wherever it rears its ugly head!

" How wonderful it is online that now we can all see what amazing ppl are creating. We always have had amazing ppl making such things, but usually reserved for family keepsakes, or nanas specialty. Put down the iPhone and pick up a craft I say!" ~mldesign0401 Indeed. I'm often gobsmacked at what people can do. And it's great to see the process in pictures. I do spend a lot more time looking at others creations the actually doing something myself! One of the traps of everything shared online. I do love seeing the creations that didn't go as planned too! So funny. It's great that people have the sense of humour to still share their "failures". At the end of the day, there's more benefit in the process of creating right? At least they had a go.

Agree with everyone who said that art should speak to them and not be purchased simply to match existing décor. I am a bit of an art hoarder. I have so many pieces of art that I buy simply because I love them or they really do speak to me! I do not have enough walls to hang all my art, so I simply recycle them. I move them around or replace one with another over and over again. When I purchase art for clients I do so in various ways. Art auctions, galleries, online, commissions etc. it really depends on what the client's budget is, how far I can push the client's boundaries but still stay within the parameters of what they like, and most importantly, how the art makes the client feel! I never buy art for a client and just install it without their imput because what speaks to me may not speak to them! I really like your pieces TJG creative! I happen to love photography however, most clients ( at least the majority of the ones I have worked for) seem to be glued to the idea of paintings. every now and then I manage to convince a client to include black and white photography in their home and I do this by bringing my own pieces in, showing them how wonderful they can be in their space and they are usually keen then to purchase some of their own. I try to steer away from art prints if possible because in my opinion, something original can always be found to suit anyone's taste and budget. By buying original artworks, we are supporting our local art communities and encouraging new and emerging artists to continue pursuing their dreams. Good luck with your venture and I will certainly keep your works in mind if the opportunity arises.